And happy birthday, Ian!

I wish the quality was a little better. I only had my phone w/ me.

Yesterday was an interesting day. It marked the end of a nine year career in IT for ADE/KLA Tencor. It was the first time I’d lost a job. I’m guessing it won’t be the last. Offshoring could easily hit me again. It was sad to walk out of our building with my friend and former boss knowing that we’d never leave that parking lot again. And sad to think that there are some co-workers that I’ll likely not see again. I hope we all find work soon.

The comforting thing is that I know I’ll see the friends I made again over the years. My former boss happens to be one of my closest friends; it’ll be hard not to see him. Some folks I’ll be able to stay in touch with over IM or Facebook. Hooray for the webitron.

In a way, I was kinda spared yesterday from thinking too much about my predicament. With Martha furiously packing and trying to get ready for a sudden five-day trip, I didn’t have time to wallow or really even reflect. I did my best to help her out the door and then turned my attention to wrangling these two kids that keep hanging around here.

Speaking of kids… I think my daughter’s rash is either slowing down or starting to fade a bit. We discovered it Sunday morning while getting ready for church. She’s had a rash similar to it before and it turned into some crazy hot tub virus or something and she had to be treated w/ some scary antibiotics that kept doctor, pharmacist, and parents concerned for a while. Thankfully, she got seen rather quickly this time and has already got 3 doses of non-scary antibiotics in her. I’ll be praying that the spots are gone before Thursday.

This morning, Abby and I did some shopping while Joey was in preschool. It was strange to go shopping the day after I lost my job, but the vast majority of our merchandise was bought with gift cards of some sort. I picked up a new Dewalt drill that was going for a crazy sale price. I loved my previous drill, but the Makita battery packs are hard to find and expensive. The Home Depot trip was really only a time-killer until we could get into Costco. Abby was really well behaved and pulled off many smiles from strangers. If only that would work as currency… that’d come in handy.

With grocery shopping out of the way, we went to pick up Joey. We stopped to make a quick sea turtle in the wet sand outside his classroom. It’s amazing how quickly wet sand will claim a previously clean 2 year-old’s outfit.

I then raced through three chaotic projects at once… prepping the kids’ lunches, cleaning out the freezer, and putting the groceries away. Whew…

Then we made these:

Now… I shall nap.

We’d just left Villa (an awesome, family-owned Mexican restaurant on Tucson’s NW side). Martha and I had our usual – red chili beef quesadilla and a carne asada burrito – and ordered a shredded beef taco for Joey… of which he had none. So, as we’re driving out of the parking lot, we’re all chit-chatting in the car…

“Stop talking a me! I pray to God.” Mar and I were stunned… We got real quiet.

“Jesus, thank you for my taco.”

That was it. And I think it was a fantastic start.

It happens.

I think Martha had gone out to do some shopping or was in the shower… I don’t remember exactly. Joey, Abby, and I were entertaining ourselves in the living room. On my way into the kitchen to do some dishes, I started up Songbird to play some music (FFVIII Piano Collection).

After 15 minutes or so, I turned to find Joey sitting at the computer, ‘chair-dancing’ and pretending to use the mouse.

“Play pew-er, Da-y. Play pew-er!”

“Are you playing computer?”

“Yeah.”

I dried off my hands and wandered over to play with him for a while. We clicked a few random songs and then ended up on the Songbird homepage. He quickly spotted the screencast and instructed me to click on it. It’s basically a ‘this is songbird, here’s feature a, it can also do feature b’ kinda thing. At one point, the narrator says ‘songbird’ in a distinctive, movie trailer-ish way… it made me chuckle. Joey imitated him and we both laughed. It’s a hoot to hear a two year-old attempt (and mostly pull off) speaking in a deep, dramatic voice.

I forget what we did after that, but I’d thought nothing of it until he said it again in the bathtub last night.

“Songbird” he said, complete w/ furrowed eyebrows and dramatic depth.

Fathers beware.

“Pah-ee, Da’y! Pah-ee!”

I nearly blurted out, “You made peepee in the potty?!” but caught myself before making such a corp/social blunder. :)

I’m SO PROUD of him!